May Madness

Before and After pics....

2011-04-20T15:57:00.000-06:00

So my sister has all the pics from our challenge ( I forgot my camera) and she blogged about it. If you want to have a gander, go here! http://youre-young-youll-get-over-it.blogspot.com/ We will be doing more pics after this next challenge is over! Isn't it inspiring???!!!

Cheers!

Spring Weight Loss Challenge

2011-04-09T23:28:00.001-06:00

Yup, that's right! I am hosting a 6 week weight loss challenge! Want to join up? We are starting this coming Friday, April 15th, in Okotoks. There is a $25 entry fee and there will be CASH prizes! You thought I was going to keep the money, right??!! I already have 16 contestants! Yay!

I haven't posted on here about it, but I just WON a weight loss challenge in my sisters' town. We teamed up and kicked some BUTT! I lost a total of 47 lbs for the challenge, and I am down 58 lbs over all. I'm not at my goal yet so bring on the challenge!


So this is me at Christmas. Please take special notice of my chubby nose. I've been told it's very skinny these days. Cause I need to lose weight off my nose, and not my butt, right??!!!

This is me at midpoint. I don't think my nose looks skinnier.
Maybe a bit crooked...? Oh, and I cut bangs.
Everyone commented on my hair color, and I guess I chopped off some bleached out bangs?

This is me at my heaviest in the summer.
Yup, there's that fat nose of mine! Sorry I don't have a current pic.

I am also very excited to start a running program with my friend Shannon and a few other ladies from my town. My life is very busy lately! I made it a goal to run a 1/2 marathon this year, and its going to happen! So thank you to Shannon for putting together this running group! I just got a great running jacket from Costco, so now I have an official reason to wear it! Woot, Woot!

What else is new? I don't know. I might start to blog about my weight loss. I don't have a secret. I will tell anyone that asks. I am exercising and counting calories. Except not this week....Yah, cause I really missed ice cream and cookies this year...but, Friday is fast approaching!

So, that's what I am up to. If you would like to join my challenge, you have to come to the weigh ins, but I would love to have you!

I should let you know, that I have a secret blog post hidden in my archives that I am to chicken to post. It's all about losing weight and my struggle over the years. Maybe someday. But for now, this is it. Enjoy!

CHEERS!

My new Business!

2011-03-20T02:42:00.000-06:00

I've started a new business! Yay! I'm hoping to gain a social life and maybe a little spending money out of it. We'll see how it goes! I am a new consultant for Scentsy! We love Scentsy at our house. I have been a crazy consumer of these amazing wickless candles since the fall of 2009. I decided to become a rep because I'm crazy! LOL Check out my website to view my product line, and if you love it like I do and want to host a party so you can get your stuff for free, then give me a call and we will make it happen!
My Scentsy Website

And, I'm so crazy that I signed up for the August convention in Fort Worth! I really better make a go of this, or else I'm just going to have a great girls weekend away!

Happy Birthday Wesley

2011-03-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

This is the cake I destroyed!

I tried to make my own fondant. It didn't work so great. :(

SSSSHHHHH! Don't tell the birthday boy! He didn't notice!

Here is the Birthday boy! Isn't he cute! We forgot to teach him how to blow out candles!

I guess that's something parents do with their first kids and forget to do

with the last!

His very own cake! So exciting!

He knew just what to do!

Love you baby!

Super Update...What we did last year!

2011-01-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

Peter turned 10!

Alex Turned 8!

We went sailing with Grama and Grampa Linteris

A little face painting...

And being weird with blueberries...

We took our cute little trailer all over Alberta and BC. It guzzled our gas and we coasted through one pass on fumes, but we had a great time!

So cute...

Wes is a great camper... He sleeps anywhere.

We played at the river in Okotoks

Wes loves to swing!

And he started to crawl at five months!

We caught some minnows

And got muddy...

Swam in the Hot Springs

And sun bathed

Did a bit of yard work...

And we said good bye to Grampa Gus.

We rode the Gondola and climbed Sulfer Mountain in Banff..

And we got to see this rainbow from above Banff townsite.

Yrevor got a little crazy...

We went to walking with the Dinosaurs

We did some tubing

And had a great time. We actually got a bit of sunny weather, too!

Harlee got new gear

And had a birthday! Guess who turned 3?

We camped with our cousins...

The boys went on MAN-CATION

And Levi turned 6!

We played in the mud and started our fence.

Alex got Baptised

We got a little crazy for Halloween. The older boys were too fast to get caught on camera! Here is Trevor in his Minion costume. (Despicable Me)

Im a vampire!

Gary and Matter. Gary is FBI

And Alisha is a baby.

Levi did great in his Christmas concert. Even though we had a minor meltdown over wardrobe.

We did celebrate Christmas but I guess my batteries were dead?

So there you have it. Our year in Photos!

Halloween Pic

2010-11-02T21:53:00.000-06:00

My hubby had to be a minion from the movie Despicable Me. So using the help of www.instructables.com, we created this...

Not too shabby!

And I went as a vampire. Cause I didn't want to be the lame wife of the guy in the cool costume...Next year we'll make something cool for me!

Took my phone swimming this summer... Ooops

2010-09-19T21:57:00.001-06:00

Got a new phone. The kids all had to get a picture on it.

My favorite crazy kids :D

My cute baby :D

Cute cousin! What fun!

Here's my baby learning to crawl. Not yet six months in this one! :D

My little artists

2010-06-17T01:04:00.001-06:00

I got these two set up to paint so I could feed the baby and chat on the phone. While I was watching, they proceeded to get creative. One of many times today, though this one was the most fun!

They decided that paper was too predictable for their artwork, and moved on to a more creative medium...Their bodies!

I think they were going for the warpaint / camouflage look.

It took a lot of elbow grease to get that paint off!

Randomness...

2010-06-17T01:00:00.000-06:00

Wesley got to meet my gramma. Isn't she cute? Love you gramma!

We've been going to the mountains after church for fun...

I think Trevor is just trying to kill me by making me haul my butt up huge steep hills. Bring it on!

Add caption

Here are the falls. So pretty. We went up into Blue Rock and Sheep River Parks.

And stopped for a picture in Black Diamond.

A great day!

May long weekend

2010-06-17T00:54:00.002-06:00

Peter turned 10 this month! Happy birthday! And why can't you ever just smile NICELY for a picture???

We went camping at Little Bow provincial park for the long weekend. We had to try out our new camper! The camper was great, the weather was not! We slept seven people in that camper two nights in a row. Two littles on the bunk, myself , Trevor and Wes on the table bed (and Harlee too one night) and two littles on the floor. Peter drew the short straw the second night and got the floor to sleep on. All night long, he kept kicking open the door and freezing us! Good times though!

We still love you Peter!

We tried a little fishing. No bites. The wind was too strong.

This is what Peter and Alex liked to do whenever they could....play in the fire.

or chop wood.

Climb trees. This is a "where's Levi" picture. Can you find him?

We did a lot of fire playing...It was the only way to stay warm.

We had a ceremonial curtain burning. Bye-bye lace curtains. The fumes just about killed us.

I think this is a good look for me :D

Smile Alex, it's not that bad!

This is Trevor's favorite thing to do.

Grampa is enjoying his chocolate bar.

Levi is looking somewhat clean here. It's a miracle!

And Wesley decided after only two days, that he didn't want to camp in the cold anymore, so I decided we should all pack up and go home. :D

Some fun videos from our crazy lives!

2010-05-17T19:57:00.003-06:00

Trevor at the Big Rock in Okotoks. I attempted to film his accident to get on America's funniest home video's. He landed it, though!

Here are the baby cousins. Trying to get them to smile.

This is Levi staging a video for America's Funniest Home Video's! LOL

Here is some of the family being crazy, trying to get Wes to laugh.

May so far...

2010-05-15T23:46:00.000-06:00

I'm so far behind with blogging, so here is another quick update with pictures.

Harlee loving her brother. A regular occurrence.

. Gramma May turned 50! Happy birthday!

Uncles Wayne and Drew playing with Wes at the Party.

I think Isabella enjoyed her cake.

Peter and Alex... not trying to annoy each other!

Here's all the family that made it.

We went for a five hour drive to Elkford BC. It should have taken us only two and a half hours. But we got delayed....Climbing big rocks...

This is at Frank Slide in the Crows Nest Pass. I used to love climbing here as a kid.

Check out this cute hat.

Yup, I was here too!

We were on our way to our cousins house. Dad was already there helping them shingle the roof of their house.

I think he was taken over by an alien...Hmmmm.

Tonya, Braiden and Blaine and you can kinda see the new roof in the back there...

We saw a lot of wild life on the way. A Coyote, a herd or two of these funny guys, more deer than we could count and even some elk. The trip home was much faster. No stopping, and we made it in two and a half hours. Of course, Dad was driving again.

We had us another cousin photo shoot when the Youngs came to town again.

We weighed them both, and Wes is still winning, but not by much.

Wes is 15lbs 4oz and Sol is 14lbs 4oz.

Cousin Rosie stopped by, too. She's in the twenty something range. The boys may never catch her!

Here's Wes grinning at his great gramma Callbeck.

I couldn't resist adding this one. That's hot, Matt!

And here is my latest acquisition. It's a 14ft trailer! I'm so excited! It's the same age as my dear husband. It is also my new fixer-upper project.

It's in really great shape, but...

THESE cushions have got to go!

As do the LOVELY lace curtains, and those caps! There is carpet on the floor too, so I will be looking for some free laminate scraps to clean that up. I will be posting pictures of the final project when I get it done.

Harlee has already broken in the trailer. She fell in the doorway and split open her chin, so we got to spend the evening in the Urgent Care Center waiting to get her all glued back together. Good as new now.

And, hopefully I will post again soon, so I'm not doing so much catch-up!

March in review...

2010-05-15T22:25:00.000-06:00

Here we finally have a picture of Peter holding Wes.

Here is Lace, ready to pop! Love the belly. Her water broke right after she got home from visiting me!

Here we are meeting cousin Rosealie.

I love his little feet!

These two can't get enough of him!

I can't figure out how to turn these pictures. This is Wes and his new cousin Sol, Wes is 17 days old and Sol is 10 days old. Sol is the skinny one! He weighed in at birth around 7 lbs 11oz, and Wes was 10lbs 11oz. Quite the difference!

Baby ballet!

Showing off their muscles!

Look at that nasty face! And punching his cousin, too!

Now it's time to get even! Haha!

Time to make up. :D

Lacey and Sol. He's so tiny and cute!

Grampa Frank and Harlee and Wes on blessing day. We had a double blessing and the Young family joined us to bless our little boys together. What a fun and special day!

Check out all the babies that came! All in little white onesies, too! Fist is Sol, then Wes, Cousin Rosealie, Cousin Emily and freind Penny. Aren't they so cute! And they are all arragned according to age.

Rosie is the chubbiest, by far!

Wesley Frank May

2010-03-24T00:57:00.000-06:00

Sorry all for the delay! I've been busy! This sweet baby boy arrived early on March 1st, after four hours of labor. He came out 10lbs 8 oz, and 22 inches long! He arrived only two days after my "due date"! Can you believe it? And yes, I did go out and buy new pants that I never got to wear!

So here is the quick version of my birth story. We had a dinner party the night before, so I went to bed early after a long day of cleaning, cooking, church, and kids and an Olympic Canadian Gold Medal Hockey Game! By 2:42 ( :P exactly!) I had my first contraction. I started watching the clock to see if it was going anywhere. I was pretty sure I would end up going back to sleep and that nothing was going to come of it. I wasn't expecting this baby til the middle of March based on past history! Anyway, they were five minutes apart and lasting almost a minute. At the end of the first hour, I couldn't sleep anymore, so I stopped trying and let Trevor know we were having a baby!

We both went down to the kitchen to tidy up from our dinner party (for something to do). After a bit, I decided it wasn't too early to call my sister and let her in on our news. We chatted for an hour or so, while I tossed down the phone and moaned through my contractions. She was great support and an awesome cheering squad for me, especially since Trevor had crashed on the couch when we started chatting). I hung up on her when things started to pick up and called my mom to let her know, too. After a few minutes I had to let her go, too, and I woke Trevor up with my moaning. He went and phoned the midwives to let them know that things were picking up and they should head on over.
I had planned to listen to my birth music, and smell my oils and light candles, but things were going so fast that I wasn't getting any of that done!

I was having contractions every minute by now and I headed up to the shower. I moaned them out in the shower until the water ran out. Our midwife, Jane, arrived just before and began racing to get set up. I moved from the shower to sit on the toilet for a while. The contractions felt better there and were coming every thirty seconds. Jane came in and checked the baby with the Doppler for a few seconds, and moved off again. She came back a few minutes later to check my dilation and pronounced me a seven. I was discouraged, but determined. My mantra from the beginning of labor was "longer, stronger, closer together" and I changed it to "I am getting Huge!"

Time is a blur, it went so fast, but a short time later, I was crawling onto my bed. I put my face down on a pile of pillows, with Trevor at my head rubbing my back, and I pushed that baby out! Pushing contractions felt so great! I was happy for the change. I had gotten quite loud in the bathroom, and the kids were up by now and kept coming in to check on me. Jane had one hand on the baby's head as I pushed him out, and she guided me to push slowly to avoid tearing (with other baby's I pushed them out so fast I needed stitches, but not this time! Thanks Jane!).

I rolled onto my back and Jane handed my slippery, fat baby to me. It's the most amazing memory. Trevor and I rubbed his back and talked to him while he started to breath and pink up. I had started to bleed, so Jane had me push out the placenta quickly and shot me up with oxytocin to slow it down. I still hadn't checked to see what we'd had, and I'd asked everyone not to tell me, but Trevor let it slip when he went to the door to tell the kids that the baby had arrived. :D A boy! I have to say I was surprised! Born around 7:15 am. After a night with a big full moon!

This little baby of ours was born in the Caul, which means, he was born with all his membranes in tact. Jane said he looked like saran wrap covered him as he came out, and she had to tear it off of his back after he was born. This is a very special thing, and these babies are said to be very spiritual souls.

Our second midwife, Savan, arrived soon after, I guess I was too fast for her! She got to help with the clean up! I was still bleeding heavy so they gave me another shot. I nursed my baby for a while and then, when things had calmed down, and all the kids had come in to see the baby, we got busy phoning our friends and family to let them know our good news!

We had picked out two boys names before the baby was born, but I just didn't like the middle name. So Wesley had no middle name for his first week of life. There was a name in my head that kept pestering me and wouldn't go away. I played with it and didn't tell anyone until I was sure. This little boy was meant to be named after his grandpa Frank, and there was no way that I could deny it. The name wouldn't leave my head and once I was sure, I let Trevor know. He, of course was proud to name this babe after his dad, and I could finally let my mind rest! Grandpa Frank is a great man. He is giving and generous and full of wisdom and love and honor. I hope our little Wesley will be proud of the name that he will carry on.

(Peter was so busy taking pictures, that we didn't get one of him holding the baby til later and I haven't put them on the computer yet. Harlee isn't sure what she thinks of the baby when he cried for the first time! I love her face!)

Heartache :(

2010-02-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

So, I've had a bit of a heartache today. With only three days till I am "over-due" and a possible two weeks of pregnancy remaining, my poor, well-loved maternity pants have become threadbare. In the bare-bottom-ish area. A rather important part of a pair of pants, if you ask me. I'm quite sad about the whole affair. These pants saw me through my last pregnancy, and almost to the end of this one :( They have a few war wounds already. Like an ink stain on the back pocket. Put there five weeks ago while I was moving....

I'm sure the bare spot is due to frequent washing. It must be. They are my only pair of out-of-the-house pants. I have a pair of black stretch pants that I wear around the house. I will not be seen in public in them. They are only good for lounging, and wearing on the desperate laundry day. Most days, my beloved pants are thrown into the wash at bed time and dried in the morning, to be worn by the time I have to drive to school. It's a great system. Yes, the bare-ness was definitely the result of frequent WASHINGS! Not WEARINGS! Definitely not caused by the rubbing of my thighs as I walk. My thighs don't do that!

So I am left with a few options. I have a lovely pair of orange striped pj's that I bought for our trip to Florida. They match a lovely orange T-shirt with flip-flops on the chest. Yes, I could wear those in public....If my house burnt down! I also have a pair of plaid green pj's that I have been "over-washing" for the last three years. They are a little worse for wear, but could pass at school in the morning. My other options....Patch the bare-bottom-ish pants and hope that no-one notices, and that no one I see has read this blog and is now checking to see if they are the bare-bottom-ish pants (how embarrassing!)

I really don't want to invest in a new pair of pants at this late stage! I mean, who's to say I will ever even need a pair of maternity pants again! (No we haven't decided yet!) What if I go into labor tonight ( it COULD happen! Don't laugh!), and don't need the new pair that I plan to buy? Can I get away with hiding out at home for the next two weeks? No, I don't thinks so. I could start wearing skirts everywhere I go. This is a viable option. I do have a few skirts. My dear sister Lacey has been wearing a "house dress" around home lately ( her husband oh so lovingly has renamed it a "castle dress". We are both at the end of our pregnancies, btw). I could resort to a "house dress", as well. Hmmm.

Anyway, if you do happen to read this blog, and you do run into me before this babe arrives, please be polite and comment on my radiance and glow, and not whatever I happen to be wearing on my bottom-ish area! We may still want to be friends at the end of this week, and my hormones are not very friendly these days! Sooooo, if I am still wearing my bare-bottom-ish pants, don't go looking to see how well I mended them! :D

Happy Valentines day!

2010-02-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

Our kids school had a Heart to Heart Market to raise money for Haiti. Here's what we sent for the sale!

These are Kool-Aid flavored rice krispy hearts! I also threw in some rolled oats for fiber. We made purple and pink.

Cut them out with a cookie cutter!

I'm boring...

2010-02-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm so boring lately. We had so much to do today, that we started the puzzle from h***! It's been an all day project, and I now have cankles ( my feet have swollen so much that my calf runs into my ankle!) So I'm giving up on the puzzle for now. I think we may just give up on all that sky....

We are down to two weeks till due date now. I'm ready. Not anxious yet. Not too uncomfortable yet. I can keep going. But I would really love to have this one in less than my normal two weeks overdue. We'll see. It starts to get old when people start commenting. Just grin, right? Oh well...

We are loving the new house. We've got blinds up, some pictures hung, it's feeling like home. I think that has more to do with the scrubbing of the toilets than anything. Something about cleaning them just makes if feel less like a hotel stay! And, we are slowing down our trips into Calgary. We are starting to use our local resources! For a few weeks, we were making several trips a day into town! Yikes!

I am missing my superstore. We have a No Frills here, but it doesn't carry the bulk items that I buy. :( or the rice milk. So, It's in to Calgary once a week at least to visit Superstore. :D

We had our first house guests! My sister and her kids came to stay. It was a great time! We had ten kids here, then five more cousins showed up to play. We were only missing our cousins from PEI. They played together all day, and we didn't hardly see or hear them! The house has lots of places for them to play. After our cousin party, the kids went to bed and Lace and I enjoyed our CHEESCAKE!!!

This is smothered in callebaut, raspberry sauce, and hot fudge sauce! Yummmy! The rest of my half of the cake is in the freezer, waiting for my next sugar day, and for the celebration of my birth and Lacey's birth! MMMM. One of us needs to have a baby ASAP!!!

Soooo, that's all that's new with me. I've got my birth supplies, found some of the baby clothes, now I'm playing the waiting game. Waiting for a reason to eat cheescake! LOL

We have had a new addition!!!!

2010-02-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

No, not a baby yet! A lizard! He has been given a lovely stripper name of "Jackie Legs", because he's "such a great jumper"!!! My many thanks to Auntie Leanne, for this new addition to our family!

And a big thanks, for all the excitement that "jackie Legs" has already brought to us! We had a great time the other day when, while attempting to feed his new pet, Alex dropped the container of crickets onto his bed. Then came the screaming and yelling that had me running up the stairs to see what part of him was injured only to discover him climbing up the wall trying to escape the little nasties...

So, super mom to the rescue, I started catching them as best I could without touching them, for I too would have prefered to be climbing up the walls! We found a Poke ball in the closet that worked great for snapping them up and dropping them into the container. At least a dozen later and we thought we had them all, till the screaming started up again as one of them made a trip down the heat register. We are still waiting to see if he made it out alive....

And, during all this drama and screaming and general freaking out, my lovely Peter decided it was his duty to lecture us and let us know the proper way of feeding ones' pet (he has a pet snake, you know), and informing ME that he would just have to take over feedings from now on, blah, blah, blah...

Needless to say, I am glad that we have not been revisited by the escaped cricket. I do not want to have a repeat performance of "cricket on the bed" with it's lovely musical numbers and insane dialogues. Nor do I want to spend any more time on my hands and knees chasing down nasty little crickets that I KNOW are probably planning their second escape as I type...

Welcome to the family, Jackie Legs!!!!!

INTERVENTION!!!!

2010-01-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

I was recently informed (when my house was for sale), that my couches needed an intervention! (thanks Lace! ) So here are the before and after shots! I hope you all like them!

Better, yes? Unfortunately we merely relocated the scary couches to the bonus room for the kids to enjoy. If you have a slightly loved sectional that you want to pass on, we will gladly send them packing!

Our Chinook snowman...

2010-01-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

You love the apples for eyes, don't you? He's a HOT snowman!

crafting with the girls

2010-01-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

New focus

2010-01-19T15:33:00.001-07:00

SOOOOO, We are moved in! I can't believe how smoothly it went. I am truly grateful to all the family, friends and Elders that came and helped us out. The unloading went fairly quickly, and then we ordered PIZZA! People stuck around and helped us get the kitchen and pantry unpacked and the beds all put together for the night. We even did a little decorating! We have amazing family! :D

We have a new phone number, so call my cell or leave me your email and I'll get it to you. We also have cable, internet and a washer and dryer again! I am loving the HUGENESS of my new washer! Two days worth of darks all went into one load! AMAZING!!!!

So now, my focus has moved to unpacking and getting something to cover every window. We don't enjoy entertaining the whole neighborhood at night. I'm tired of only showering in the dark and dressing in the closet, and with us planning a home birth, we need privacy! I have even picked up a few birth supplies and a bag of size one diapers (I've learned from my mistakes and I don't buy newborn size anymore!) We are down to almost five weeks till due date! Can't wait. I also need to find all the baby clothes and figure out where to put this little ones dresser... My closet, perhaps? And what about that baby name???? If only we could figure that out! We'll see!

I'll put up some picks of the house once it looks less like a tornado in here. :D

Polling all guests!

2010-01-08T22:03:00.004-07:00

I've added three new baby polls! Take a look and let me know what you think! I'll give you some background info to get you started! All four of my babies so far have been over ten pounds. All four of my babies have been over a week late, three were two weeks late. And I have three boys and a girl so far! Don't be too mean with your predictions!

The poll doesn't tell me who said what, so if you want bragging rights, leave a message on this post with your predictions!

Snowboarding!!!!!

2010-01-08T21:24:00.006-07:00

This is Peter's first Snowboarding trip! He did great!

He went up with Grandma and Grandpa May, uncle Gary, uncle Blaine, and Dad.

Watch this video of Peter! Way to go!

monkey bread

2010-01-08T21:24:00.004-07:00

Trevor and I are officially old. This Christmas we both turned .....30! We decided this was something worth cellebrating, so I bought Trevor a Dryer, and he bought me a Washer! Not just any, but the Whirlpool Duet! Very exciting and posh gifts, don't you think????!

My crazy man shaved off his beard and got a haircut for his birthday! Could this be the same man? I'm very grateful that I no longer have to kiss that bottle brush face!

The kids all baked me a cake on my birthday. Not an easy job with most of the kitchen in boxes! The candles had already been packed too, so This is my root beer scented birthday candle in all it's barely lit glory! We had quite the dinner feast, too! Trevor made up a box of rice-a-roni, and baked some chicken, and I stirred up some stove-top stuffing and a package of scalloped potatoes. It's fun to empty out the cupboards!

We were also gifted with two new nieces. Trevor's sister Leanne had her second baby girl this month, Her name is Emily, and she is the tiniest, cutest little thing you ever saw. She's my new favorite person :D

And, my sister Julie had her first baby, Rosealie. Look at all that dark hair! She looks just like her daddy! Sorry Jules! She's a chubby little thing. I got to check out all her rolls!

When recently asked, "what kept you sane in 2009?" Well my only answer to that could be my sister! Love you Lace! And Telus, for your great long distance phone plans!

Happy New Year everyone!

UPDATE...

2010-01-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

We are packing up a storm! Our possession has been moved up to January 15!!!!

Can you believe it? I am soooo happy! We don't have to move twice, and we aren't homeless! We are just waiting for the mortgage instructions to get finished and then Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and we get our keys next Friday!!!!! All the boxes and furniture are going into a giant bin tomorrow. Then the cleaning will commence! Luckily we haven't dirtied it up too much since it was for sale.

The kids started school this week in Okotoks. I am driving two hours a day again until we get moved, though I don't really mind it! It's kind of relaxing to drive and I catch up with my mom on the phone while I drive. Love you mom! We are very happy with the teachers, though there was a bit of a problem at first, I stuck to my guns and they fixed it for me! (insert proud mom moment here!) Levi is in all day kindergarten, which I LOVED with Peter and Alex. Peter is already arranging playdates with friends. Not practical right now, but I'm glad he's found a friend. He also informed me on his first day, that he "talked like Levi all day so they would think I was cute and get used to me before I started acting normal" HUH??? I let him know he should just be himself! Alex seems to be doing okay, too. Though he is more reluctant to share with me his triumphs. Levi's teacher is one of those people who absolutely drip with sweetness and goooey lovey dovey-ness. Kind of gross, but the kids love her. Sooooo not my style! All in all it has been a great week for us. Lots of good news and lots of new experiences!

Really ugly brown carpet :(

Did I mention that I ~~hate~~, HATE my new carpet???? It's the wrong shade of brown for the rest of the house. Come on over and you can let me know what you think. I'm rather disapointed in myself that I managed to screw up a house again. This time with "neutral" colors! If you don't already know about my blue house, I'll say no more.... :D Anyway, I've decided that I can overlook the brown carpet for all the other wonderful things that the house has to offer! Right? I'm still trying to convince myself. I've been back since my fist glimpse, and decided it isn't as bad as I first thought.

So here are a few pictures of my accomplishments this week! Thanks to my hubby for all his hard work! And to my kids, for amusing themsleves without toys to play with, and to the whole family for eating all the nasty instant food we have because I packed all my dishes and spices and kitchen tools! All this "suffering" will make the new house that much better!

I couldn't stand that my living room was still looking decorated and lived in.....So I put garbage bags on the fake trees. Now they are officially packed! Levi has big plans to color, cut and glue faces on them.

All the toys are in boxes. The OCD in me gave up and threw them all in boxes UNSORTED!!!!! Oh, the good times to be had when I unpack them! The kids were great and I had four little hands taking screws out of toys shelves. It must have saved me hours!

The basement is all packed up, too. The kids found the Halloween bucket and have been running around with swords, and dressed like power rangers and super girl.

My closet has never been so clean! Or so empty!

The beds are all on the floor! It's such fun to jump from bed to bed! I'm even letting them. My bed is on the floor now, too. I'm not sure how easily I'll be able to get up off it in the morning, but it's only for a week :D

And, have I mentioned that God is gifting us with FABULOUS melting temperatures for our moving week? We have been truly blessed this year already. :D

Photo shoot

2009-12-23T11:52:00.002-07:00

These two love to take pictures. Here are a few recent ones that they took of each other.

Here's a funny video. I can't figure out how to move this one, so it's lopsided on the blog. Oh, well!

More house stuff.

2009-12-23T11:51:00.001-07:00

We are Seven weeks till Move in!!!!

This is the light in the entry. It has a design flaw. The kids can reach it through the railing....Ooops! Who planned this house??? Oh, yeah, me! LOL

Bathroom lights. Granite and tile are in too.

Kitchen lights, tile and granite.

Under cabinet lights. We are sooo excited about that!

Okay, weird cabinets. I have three or four of these. They open on weird angles. I so didn't know I was getting these until they got put in. Oh, well. Maybe I'll love them?

kitchen nook light. All the rest are pretty boring.

Fireplace. Funny, that tile looked darker in the store...

My bathroom. We were going for a spa look. Still needs grout and taps, and mirrors, but we're getting there!

email from SANTA!!!!

2009-12-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

Santa is sending out email this year! My kids were so excited to get a personalized email video from the north pole! He even tells them special Santa secrets. Harlee is too cute. She was nodding and talking back to santa through the whole message. Give it a try! Technology is amazing!

http://santa.sympatico.ca/watch/f77112ce8f7fdba6de9e6f46779c54d9

Christmas...

2009-12-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

So it's time for new decorations. I may do some post christmas shopping....Harlee took this pic!

The kids decorated the tree! Good job.

Not sure what he's doing...Nice socks Levi!

Christmas Elf

Here's another

This is Harlee's new doll. It's a santa. She hauls it around like a baby. She tells me, Santa wants to walk, or Santa wants you. And then I end up cuddling this creepy santa doll.

She really loves him.

Another Harlee picture. Merry Christmas!

Cabinets

2009-12-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

This is the vanity in the kids bathroom. There will be two sinks, one on each side.

This is one of the two vanities in the master bath.

This is the laundry room vanity. There will be a stainless steel sink in it.

The kitchen.

and some shots of my dad doing the railing!

Our house is...

2009-12-06T19:56:00.001-07:00

Conditionally sold!!!!!! We are soooo ecstatic! I was starting to get nervous that it wouldn't sell this close to Christmas. We have had no showings all week until Saturday. But it only takes one buyer and lots of prayers! We are so thankful and are looking forward to next Monday when the conditions come off.

On a slightly less happy note, we will be homeless for about three weeks. They want possession for Jan 15, and We don't get our house until Feb.8. So we will be looking for a place to rent for one month in Okotoks or area. My parents have an empy shop with a bathroom and a kitchen that we could use if we HAD to. And moving twice in two months while at the end of my pregnancy won't be fun. But, if life didn't give us challenges, we would have no great memories, right??!!!

Now I am off to put kids to bed and start browsing kijiji for rental properties!!!!

Railings...

2009-11-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

We hired Alberta Rail Masters Inc to do our handrails in this house, and here is my dad hard at work. You have to have the best, especially when they are in the family!

We love it so far! Thanks Dad!

A close up of our pattern...

The upstairs rail from the front entry...

Check out the beautiful handrail going down into the basement. That is soooo not the builder standard handrail! We wont be taking that off to get the couch down the stairs!

The view from my bedroom doorway. It's looking great!

The rail into the living room from the basement stairs...And my house is getting more child friendly all the time. I can bring the kids by now without worrying that Harlee is going to do a header down the stairs!

Looks like dad is trying to ram that post. I sent Trevor with the camera, and didn't get any face shots! I'll see you at work tomorrow dad, so I can take a few more!

Our thanks go out to my dad for all his hard work and time. We absolutely love your work and our new rail! And a big shout out to Rae and Jer, thanks for the spindles! There will always be a touch of you in our home!

YUCKY!!!

2009-11-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

I nuked the butter this morning. I thought it was hard. Trevor then tells me he only just put it in the fridge. I was also being lazy and didn't take the cover out first. It's gonna be a great day, I can tell!

Drywall is up...

2009-11-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

It's not much to look at right now, but it's all up and taped and the ceiling is stippled.

kinda messy here...A sign of the future maybe?

The siding is almost complete now. These pictures are old.

Not much else to see. We are looking at Feb. 8/10 possession. That's very good news. The baby isn't due till the end of the month and will probably come in March, so we will have a few weeks to get settled before we have another little one to love. The house is for sale. We've had 8 people through in the first week. No offers yet but we hope we sell quickly. I don't even care if I have to go rent for a month. I just want to know for sure that it's sold. So wish us luck in keeping the house clean and tidy and nice smelling!

Cookie Exchange!!!

2009-11-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

I've been invited to a cookie exchange at the end of the month! I love going, and tasting and visiting and getting! It's a great time! So this year with the house for sale and the need to have a spotless home at all times, I was getting a little concerned about when I would get these cookies done. So I decided Monday nights are probably slow...So I started baking this morning!

The cookies...

The caramels...

The Chocolate!...

The pecans...

The many batches...

My kitchen full of cookies...

The final product! Yummy!

And my helpers, Messy!

I think I made about 15 dozen, but I lost count. Now off to the dollar store for some Christmas packaging to make them beautiful.

Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try! Compliments of Taste of Home and tweaked a bit to speed it up!

Caramel Pecan Treasures

1 cup butter

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 ¾ cup flour

½ tsp baking powder

Topping

25 caramels

1/8 cup evaporated milk

1 cup semi-sweet choc. chips

1/2 tbsp shortening

½ cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

2. Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Flatten slightly. Bake at 325* for 12 -15 min. or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

3. Place the caramels and milk in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1-2 min. until melted. Mix well and spoon or pipe onto the tops of cookies.

4. Place the chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1-2 minutes. Mix well and drizzle or pipe over caramel.

5. Top with chopped pecans. Let set until firm. Enjoy!

Yield – 2 ½ dozen cookies

Publish Post

Halloween fun!

2009-11-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! We had a good night! I wasn't feeling great, so I popped a tylenol and started getting pumpkins done.

We bought pumpkins early this year, because last year we were late and I had to search the city to find some. Well, it did me no good. Two of our beautiful pumpkins rotted before we could carve them so there I was scouring the city for more pumpkins! We bought the last two at Safeway! Why do they sell out on pumkins a week before Halloween?

I forgot to get pictures of the finished project, so I'll have to do that on Monday. It was fun, though!

I had a hard time getting costume pictures, too. The older boys were so excited that they took off, and I was too sick to care. Here is what I did get. I will dress them up again on Monday before I pack up the Halloween stuff and get some better pictures. Here they are!

We picked up a fog machine last year and the kids loved it. We only set off the fire alarm twice! More pics to come later!

Monkey Bread experiment...

2009-11-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

So I was going visiting teaching this week, and I wanted to take a treat for my sisters, and the kids like treats too, so I decided to make some monkey bread.

This was my first batch. I decided to make my own bread instead of using frozen buns. What I didn't realize, was that my recipe was twice as big as the bag of frozen stuff. I had all this in a bunt pan and the buns kept popping out of the pan as it baked! Scary! Anyway, it was too big with not enough sauce. A flop but the kids still ate it!

I had another batch of dough rising while the first one cooked. I realized my first mistake and threw half the rising buns into another pan. I only have one bunt pan, so into my two piece angel food pans they go. That was my next mistake. The butter dripped through the bottom of the pan and all over my oven! This one turned out not too bad.

This is the other one. Not so nice. Apparently there is more to monkey bread than I knew. The sauce in this one just didn't go where I wanted it to go! Mistake number three...I used the wrong kind of pudding in my sauce. I should have used instant, but I only had cooked pudding mixes. These are not interchangeable!

I was not about to be bested by my monkey bread, so I wrapped it up and gave it away, even though it was questionable!!! If you have the secret to no-fail monkey bread, please be sure to share it with me!!!

Packing...

2009-11-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

So, my sweet husband started packing. We rented a large container for the back yard and are filling it up with all the stuff in our crowded house. I have been sick all weekend and unable to help. After emptying the storage room of all the bins, he started to work on the rest of the house...

By removing my furniture...

And leaving all the stuff in it, on the floor in a huge mess. This is AFTER I sent him for boxes and cleaned up a little.

My living room was clean at one point. I sat on the couch and observed this chaos and wished I was feeling better. Why did this project get started without any boxes????

There was a huge 7 foot book shelf there against the wall yesterday...

Now the floor is four feet deep in books.

Don't let me ever get sick while packing again!!!!!

Love you dear! Thanks for helping out!

Florida for Thanksgiving!

2009-10-24T11:48:00.000-06:00

Here we are at the airport. After 1 1/2 hours of sleep for me, and none for Trevor, don't we look excited?!!! Trevor worked until 1am so we could leave, and I just got back from driving the kids down to Stirling and taking Levi for stiches and then driving back. We were ready for a holiday!

Here are Gary and Alisha. They were so nice and agreed to come with us on our holiday!

We rented a convertible for the week! Us ladies tried this with less than glamorous results, so I will be keeping those pictures to myself!

Aren't we happy? We aren't even sweating yet!

We did a lot of hot-tubbing and swimming. It was the only way we could stay sane in the HOT 95 degreee weather.

Here we are at the Medieval times dinner theater. Dressed up like royalty so that we could eat our food with our fingers. Way too much meat. The men loved it. They gave us a half a grilled chicken and a slab of ribs with a bowl of soup and a chunk of potatoes and we went at it!

Trevor got eaten by Jaws at Universal studios...

We were attacked by a T Rex...

And the guys did a little butt grabbing :D

Here we are posing with a random stranger at the MUMMY ride!

My first time in the ocean!

Fort Lauderdale at night. We drove here down the coastline from Orlando and checked out all the HUGE houses. This is taken from a fishing pier out in the ocean. Very stinky and fishy, but great for pictures!

Butt grab photo...

We drove to the Everglades and took an airboat tour to see the gators.

Here's our gator. Isn't he cute? About a 9 footer.

Trevor with a baby gator.

Then it's off to the cruise and the Bahamas!

Cruisin'

And crazy...

Our tiny Cabin...

Some cool jelly fish in an aquarium in Nassau.

A night of fondue. Yummy chocolate.

Eating Greek on a patio on the coast for thanksgiving!

And back to Calgary! Thanks for a great trip guys!

Potty training!!!!

2009-10-24T10:17:00.001-06:00

Who's a Big Girl Now? It's going great. No nasty poo messes yet, and only a few wet ones.

Harlee likes to flush and say "bye-bye poo!"

Here's an update. While napping yesturday, harlee went potty and decided to flush the ENTIRE roll of paper. Ten towels later and much elbow grease and the toilet it usable again. Where are husbands when you really need them????

The new House...again :P

2009-10-24T10:10:00.000-06:00

Here is my house. The walls are up, the shingles are on, the wiring and plumbing and heating ducts are all finished. We had our fist inspection this week, and insulation should be done today with drywalling ordered to commence on Monday.

The back of the house. The back roof isn't shingled yet, but will be soon.

Yup, more house again...

This is my future kitchen. The island is where the funny little wall is, and the sink is in the corner under the two windows. The stove and microwave go under the little cutout square in the wall and the fridge is along the wall on the right.

This is the nook for our kitchen table.

Here are Gary, Adam and Trevor. Smiling now that all the work here is done. Adam hates this house because it has too many walls.

My lovely stairs. What more can you say about that?

This is the bathtub in the master bedroom that I HATE. I thought it was going to be one of those triangular shaped tubs. this is really a very small tub. I'm going to do some whining and see if I can get it changed out this week. :(

I love my house! And this is a rather slimming picture...

Our trip so far!

2009-10-09T23:15:00.004-06:00

Here is a link to some pics of the kids at Auntie's house! Thanks Lace!http://youre-young-youll-get-over-it.blogspot.com/2009/10/day-three.html#comment-form

So this is just a quickie to let you know how we are doing. So far we have had one child with two sets of stiches. Pictures to come! Levi bashed his head on a wall just before I left for calgary on Wednesday night, and off to the hospital we went to get him fixed up. Three stiches and not a peep out of him. He is amazing. I was delayed getting home to calgary so I got about 1.5 hours of sleep before heading off to the airport at 4 am. We did make it though. with only a few mnor mishaps. Gary and Alisha who are traveling with us didn't have the hotel adress and almost didn't make it to the plane! We called them, though and it all turned out okay.
We spent the first day flying. Very boring and cramped. We had to go around an enormous thurnder storm, and it delayed our flight by 15 minutes, so we were late to the Houston aiport. We then had about ten minutes to pee and get food, before boarding the flight to Orlando. Great fun. We flew over the ocean and followed the coastline. My first sight of the ocean!
After finding our rental, we went to the hotel in our Convertable!!!! A mazda Prius for any who want to know, and ate and swam in the cold outdoor pool before crashing for the night. We saw a few lizards, warmed ourselves in the night air, and didn't get enought sleep!

Day two is today. We shopped a lot, didn't buy much, and then went to Medievil Times for dinner theater. Tonnes of fun. Then called to check on the kids. Poor little Levi has three more stiches today! The poor guy fell and split open his lip and had to get put back together again. :( I feel bad that I wasn't there for him, but he was a trooper and took it without tears. In his prayers tonight he prayed that he would be able to talk and smile tomorrow. My poor little boy. We are hoping that we will have no more incidents until after we get home, so pray for us!!!!

We are off to Universal Studios tomorrow, and then staying for the scare night! I'll let you know how it is!

The house has walls!

2009-10-01T12:47:00.000-06:00

So here are some more pictures of our house! I know that I'm obsessed, but I am just so excited!

Here we are with a floor on!

This is Trevor's brother Gary and his other employee, Adam.

Can you bend over like that?

Here are some of our first walls! And the pond we will soon get to enjoy!

My hot hubby! Don't you love hot construction workers?

I showed up with the kids and they helped out for a few minutes. This is Peter helping dad Tyvek with the hammer tacker.

Building more walls.

Main floor is done, minus the garage.

Having a drink at the end of the day... it was plus 35!

Happy...Un-birthday?

2009-10-01T12:25:00.000-06:00

So I accidentally broke a little boys heart in September when I served cupcakes instead of a cake at his birthday. So, to make amends I promised to make him a cake later. That later was two days ago. This little person never forgets. So we baked a cake. And because it really isn't anyone's birthday, all the kids got to decorate!

Levi started out with a handful of sprinkles and then went to town with the icing bag.

Alex came next. This is very serious work!

Harlee got in there next. Isn't our cake beautiful?

And finally Peter applied his artistic elements.

What a work of A R T

We sang "happy unbirthday" to everyone.

We are so Proud!!!!

Our crazy yet lazy summer!

2009-09-23T23:35:00.000-06:00

My family tree!

So, it's been a while! What is new with Us? So much! Let me update you quickly. The possesion on the new house was moved back to April, so the house isn't listed yet. The kids went back to their old school till we move ( I really didn't want to start driving again!). I am now almost 18 weeks pregnant. I'm seeing midwives again (love them), and planning another homebirth. I've only lost my cookies 8 times now!!!! A pretty boaring summer. But, here are some photos of our last few months. Enjoy!

So We had a few birthdays!

climbed a few hoodoo's

slept in a huge tent

went on the annual Linteris family river trip

had a blast!

We started school again. Grades 4, 2 and Kindergarten! Aren't we lonely now, Harlee?

Our basement hole was dug!

Minnows nibbled on our toes in the river in Okotoks

We did a little floating...

A little skateboarding? Sort of...

Levi and Grampa May and uncle Wayne caught some U G L Y fish

We climbed a big rock in Okotoks!

Our footings and foundation were poured! Finally!

Went to a beautiful and happy wedding!

We played with an enormous SPIDER!!!!

Our house was Backfilled...It's getting there!

And today, My AMAZING husband and his crew started framing our house!!!!

Can't wait for walls!

Big changes

2009-08-09T10:22:00.005-06:00

For the two of you out there that read this, it's not big news, but here it is anyway.

Big change #1. We bought a house in Okotoks. We are super excited. We fell in love with our house after going through...One House! LOL We put our money down, and it seems we keep putting it down. Our little house keeps getting bigger and so does our price! Yikes! Every time we turn around, it seems an extra 10 G has been added to our cost. We are NOT excited about that! And building is soooo slow! We put our lot on hold back in May and we are still waiting for our final plans. Possession sometime in February, they say, so we will see.

With this big move comes more big changes. We are putting the house for sale this month. We want it sold and gone so that we can concentrate on other things. That leaves us having to find a place to rent once the house sells. Yay. Two moves. F.U.N. Also, I want to put the kids into their new school in September, so it's back to driving for me for the next few months. Bring on the good times!

And lastly, big change # 5! Well, Baby # 5, anyway! Yes we are expecting another baby! We are very excited. We found out that we were expecting this little one right after signing our purchase agreement on the new house. We will be filling up this house sooner than we had hoped and are very excited. I am having the BEST pregnancy ever. I have only lost my lunch twice! How awesome! I am finally one of those pregnant people that I hate! We are just coming on week 12, and Baby is the size of large grape right now. So now comes the name game. I find the names and Trevor vetos them until I can't think of any more, and then right before the baby is born, he finally says he likes a name, and we keep it! Grrrrr! Anyway, hoping for another little girl. My sister in law is expecting her second girl, and it would be fun to have four little girl cousins in a row. Two of my sisters are also expecting, one in Novemeber and the other a week after me in March. Lots of new babies coming! Only downside is, that we may get possession of the new house the month I am due. :(

So there you have it. All our big news!

The end is near!

2009-06-24T14:45:00.002-06:00

I am sooo excited that school is almost done for the year. I love having my kids home for the summer. I love being able to stay out late during the week and sleep in in the morning. I love not making bag lunches and not caring if my kids wore the same outfit two days in a row (never happens, I swear!) I love having the boys around me.

I am also soooo excited to be done my dayhome. One more day this week and I am finished. I can't get there soon enough. I didn't mind doing it, but now that the end is so near, I am ready to be free. Free to only take my kids shopping, to go to the pool whenever, to skip a nap if I feel like it, to feed my kids crap for lunch an hour late, to clean my house ten minutes before my hubby gets home.... Oh, the freedom!

Also exciting, we are building a house! Moving out of the big city into the small city of Okotoks. We are so excited! It can't happen soon enough. I am excited that Trevor has decided to help with the choosing of carpet and tile and colors. In the past he hasn't been able to make the time to come to my appointments, so it has all been me (yes, I am admiting that my all blue house was entirely my fault). I'm glad we'll get to have fun together making all our choices.

On the downside of the move, it is time to repaint the house, and dejunk and declutter. We plan to list the house in September, so that means less camping this year and more weekends at home working.

That's all my news for now, so have a great summer!

soccer, soccer, soccer!

2009-05-26T08:57:00.000-06:00

Last night was soccer madness. Every Monday, for 1-2 hours, My hubby and I divide ourselves as evenly as we can between three soccer fields. Luckily they are all in the same park, and on rare occasions, two of our teams will play across from each other. We even have one game where they play in the same field! Won't that be fun? Cheering for both sides? We'll pray for a tie game! We had a great night. It wasn't too cold or windy and the rain was just a threat on the horizon. At one point I overheard Peter telling his coach "I think I'm the best player on the team" to which his coach replied "Oh, well I think everyone is pretty good" and Peter says "no, I think I'm the best", and then he goes for another watermelon. I guess we need to work on humility! As for the other two, Alex scored the first goal for his team, and Levi actually kicked the ball this week! I think we were the most proud of that! Harlee spent the evening stalking people's dogs. She likes to get close enough to look, but see her run when the dog looks back!

In other news, I have officially given Termination Notice to the two kids I babysit. I will be free in one month to enjoy my kids and my summer, and we'll see what the fall brings us. I am very excited.

Trevor is still slow at work, so I am having him take care of my "honey-do" list. Today I am getting my main flour bathroom tiled. Who in there right mind installs laminate flooring in a bathroom frequented by little boys? Me, that's who. I have seen the error of my ways, and I will have said error corrected soon!

Now I am off to clean and clean an oh, yeah, clean. What a great day this is going to be!

posting my first post

2009-05-22T00:59:00.000-06:00

Someone told me today that they tried to read my blog this week, only to discover that I had never posted, so here it is... My Very First Blog Post!!!! You are all very privaledged to witness this. We'll see how long I can keep this going.

So... What's up with me today? Potty training. Trevor and I are still trying to wrap our brains around the word "panties". I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but neither of us likes to say that word. She will end up wearing "underwear" like the boys, I think, and that OTHER word can be stricken from the dictionary.
We (Harlee, myself and "baby"), spent the whole morning in the bathroom, used up one roll of TP on one little bum that only peed in the potty twice...Do the math. Oh, and we also are potty training "baby". "Baby" must also have it's bum wiped every time it sits on the potty. Which is a lot. And "baby" didn't pee at all. I, however, got to clean up three pee puddles on my hardwood. One caught me unaware as I skidded through it, the other two puddles I managed to find without my socks. All in all it was a great morning. By nap time, I pulled out the diapers and vowed to give it my best tomorrow. Wish me luck.

As for the rest of my life, I am excited to say that I have just booked my campsite online for our anual family river float. We are staying at Writing on Stone provincial park and I am very excited to see what this years trip will bring. Last year we managed to have a canoe tip over with six little ones inside, and we got eaten by horseflies for about two hours. On the brite side, the family mud fight in the middle of the float was very messy and lots of fun. On the homeward stretch, we had four adults, ten kids and a tower of about five or six rafts and floaties and one crazy uncle on top, finish up the last quarter mile singing "we are the champions" at the top of our lungs to cellebrate the end of another great ride. If we didn't have bad memories, we wouldn't have any memories at all!!!

How's that for a first post??? Now to see if anyone even reads it! LOL